Sing-Along at Willard Elementary Extends the Holiday Spirt
Sure, it’s unseasonably warm this week, but it’s still January; the “bleak midwinter” that inspires poetry gloomy as this morning’s dawn. So the timing was perfect for a community sing-along like the one this afternoon at Willard Elementary School.
The gym/cafeteria was packed and cameras were plentiful as each grade, K-5, took its turn on the risers before transitioning back into the overflow audience during what amounted to one long, sustained medley of holiday standards from various traditions, from Christmas to Hanukah to Kwanzaa.
Just when you thought you’d heard enough of the jingle genre for one season, leave it to a few hundred enthusiastic kids to breathe new life into them. The 4th graders’ rendition of O Tannenbaum made for a fitting and timely ode to the discarded pine trees currently lining the grimy curbs all over town.
And the finale, Feliz Navidad, was a ringing reminder that the tune did not originate as the theme song for Taco John’s!
When you consider that Willard sits in the shadow of the fairgrounds and school starts every year right on the heels of the state fair, the school is uniquely positioned for a celebration that might seem slightly after the fact at first glance. Just because most of us aren’t so jolly in January as December doesn’t mean ol’ St. Nick isn’t. Just ask the Willard kindergartners!
